Isabella II is going crazy. In her world, she has always been surrounded by slanderous ministers, no matter how the empire has declined, no matter whether the people can survive. , amidst the lies spun by these villains, the Spanish Empire is still powerful.
As for his resignation, it was just a riot caused by ambitious warlords. A temporary military defeat does not mean that he cannot be restored in the future!
She couldn't even see or hear the scenes of the Spanish people living in poverty. They kept saying stupid things all day long about why they shouldn't eat minced meat. Would she know what the scene would be like in the distant Philippines?
The dilapidated wooden ships of the Southeast Asian fleet were in disrepair, and the artillery even had cast bronze cannons from the sixteenth century. She didn't know any of this.
Colonial soldiers have not changed their uniforms for more than 20 years. The most elite troops only hold rifles loaded with Mini bullets. In the hands of indigenous soldiers, they only have the oldest muskets and shotguns.
More soldiers even relied on bows, arrows and spears to fight!
None of these queens knew that in her eyes, her empire ruled a prosperous scene. It was not as good as Britain and France, but it was on par with Austria. As for the Queen of Prussia, she didn't take it seriously at all.
She had been wearing the emperor's new clothes for so long that she had no idea that she had become the laughing stock of the whole world!
"Shameless! Shameless lies! Xiao Letian actually sent a rude diplomat like you. Powerful Spain will never accept such humiliation!"
"I will raise the flag given by God and burn the flames of war to your homeland! The goddess of revenge has fixed her eyes on you, and you have nowhere to escape..."
Xiang Ying is speechless. Facing such a lunatic queen, all roundabout diplomatic rhetoric will be ineffective. Your kind words will even be considered true.
"Your Majesty! You'd better wake up. Don't you really know the situation in the Philippines? In this war, there were no more than 30,000 troops with muzzleloader rifles, and the rest were old muskets. , even weapons from the Napoleonic Wars are still in use!”
"More soldiers will even have to rely on bows, arrows and spears to fight... The Philippines' finances are close to collapse, and the governor's excessive taxation cannot satisfy your local greedy appetite. In addition, the governor himself is a corrupt person!"
"Your colonial government in the Philippines went bankrupt more than ten years ago and is completely unable to make ends meet!"
"Why did we regain Manila overnight? If your rule hadn't been completely rotten to the core, we wouldn't have fought so easily!"
"Face the reality! Dear Queen, you can't take back the land of the Philippines, and you will never be able to... I'm just here to do a favor, and I hope I can help you!"
"Or, a trade will do!"
The Fat Pig Queen doesn't listen to good words at all, but Susan, the chief maid at the Queen's side, is a sensible person. She has learned a lot about many things after being immersed in the court for many years.
She lay down and whispered a few words in the queen's ear, and the queen's face gradually softened, "Okay... let's put aside the dispute for now. It's already very late. Please invite the general to come to the banquet with us and let's talk slowly!"
Xiang Ying stood up and bowed slightly, "I hope the queen can think about it calmly and face reality..."
The Chinese envoys left the conference room, and Isabella II angrily said to Susan, "Why are you stopping me? That bastard pretty boy, I thought it was a gift from God, but he turned out to be so angry." enemy!"
Susan opened the folding fan to fan the Queen, "Your Majesty, please calm down first... In fact, what the Chinese just said was not all lies!"
"What do you mean?"
"Your Majesty, the empire is indeed in a serious financial crisis now. All the armament applications sent by the former colonies have been suppressed by those ministers..."
"In places like the Philippines, we have not allocated funds to increase military spending for decades... In other words, what General Xiang Ying said is 80% true!"
"What? Really!" The queen's eyes widened. "Are you saying that the weapons in the hands of our brave soldiers cannot even match those of the barbaric and backward Chinese?"
"At present...it seems like this..."
"Damn it! Even without weapons, they should have faith! God's preachers and spreaders of the gospel will fight to the death even with swords!"
"Yes, yes... the queen is right, you are absolutely right..." Susan quickly fanned her fan harder to calm the queen's anger.
"But before we send out the expeditionary force, why not listen to the price tag of the Chinese? You won't suffer a loss if you listen..."
Anyway, after a long time of persuasion, Isabella II calmed down her bad breath this time. When she walked out of the conference room, her expression obviously relaxed a lot.
The dinner was held in the large banquet hall of the Queen's villa. Each side of the long table could seat more than fifteen people. The Queen sat crosswise on the short side of the table. On her left were Spanish officials and on her right were Chinese officials. delegation.
Xiang Ying was within reach of his right hand, and on the left was Susan, and further down was the wretched old man with the goatee.
Even the queen who stepped down still maintained an extremely luxurious life. Top-quality Spanish ham, paella sprinkled with saffron, squid ink rice like dark cuisine... Ling Ling Zong Zong's dishes were served like running water.
Even the main dish includes hell barnacles that Xiang Ying has often heard of but never seen!
This kind of ugly shell like a devil's finger is a delicacy that fishermen pay for with their lives. These little things are hidden on the rocky coasts where the waves are violent, and they only grow in the cracks of the rocks beaten by the huge waves.
Fishermen picking hell barnacles must watch the tide, avoid the waves, and take advantage of the shortest window to dig out the barnacles firmly fixed on the rocks.
These little guys have very strong adhesion. Sometimes, there is only enough space between two tide heads for fishermen to dig out one or two... Then they have to avoid the waves immediately, otherwise they will die or be injured!
Almost every year, a large number of coastal fishermen die while digging for barnacles, so the gooseneck barnacle, as these biologists call it, is nicknamed the hell barnacle.
The Queen looked at Xiang Ying in a daze at the small portion of barnacles and introduced with a smile, "This is a very rare delicacy along the Spanish coast, called hell barnacles!"
"The taste is extremely delicious... A gourmet once said that these delicacies from hell, which cost one life for every ten pounds, are the devils used by Satan to seduce kind people..."
"But who can escape the temptation of the devil..."
After taking a mouthful of barnacles, Xiang Ying was startled by the words "Ten pounds can kill a human being" just after tasting a little bit of the umami!
"What? Ten pounds of this little thing costs a life?"
